Criminal justice reporter

For the second time in five days, Athens-Clarke police have charged someone with making up a story that he was robbed at gunpoint.

Bobby Lee Dixon, 42, told police he was robbed early Tuesday morning as he withdrew $600 from an ATM near downtown, at the corner of Pulaski and West Clayton streets.

But police were skeptical of the report, because Dixon didn’t call police until 2:51 a.m., about an hour and a half after he said someone stuck a gun in his back and stole the money, according to police.

He explained he delayed calling 911 because he searched for the robber himself, police said.

Dixon on Wednesday admitted he made up the story, explaining the money was stolen while out on a date with a woman he met online, police said.

He told a detective he drove the woman to the ATM, gave her his debit card and had her withdraw the money, and after he stopped at a convenience store to buy cigarettes he returned to his car to find the woman and the cash were gone, police said.

A detective took out warrants Wednesday charging him with making false statements, a felony, and false report of a crime, police said.

The investigator phoned Dixon to inform him he’d been charged, police said, but he had not been booked in as of Thursday evening.

The warrants were taken out five days after an Athens Technical College student was charged with lying that he was robbed by a gunman as he waited in his car at a red light on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

Christopher Anderson Nation, 22, concocted the story to cover up the loss of a $1,000 Pell Grant check, according to police.

Dixon — the man who lost his money on a date — didn’t say why he withdrew so much money so early in the morning.

But people lie about robberies for lots of reasons, police said, from hiding spending from a spouse to keeping an embarrassing secret.

Last year, Athens-Clarke police Capt. Clarence Holeman said false crime reports had become “epidemic” and announced that detectives would charge people who waste time, money and manpower.

“The message I’m trying to send is every time someone does this, they are going to face a felony charge,” Holeman said Thursday.